New 7.1 hairstyle looks nothing like the winning hairstyle from the 2023 contest

[ueeyasu]

it is incredibly mean spirited to replicate that artist's hair design so poorly. a lot of people have been asking for curly hair options for years, and the contest design sheet even included color coded segments of hair to help the modeller visualize volume/curls. there is no excuse, this is a completely different hairstyle.

[AstutePenguin]

The FFXIV team needs to do better on these curly hairstyles!

[utterablevenus]

this is absolutely unacceptable! its a spit in the face of the contest winner, every other contest hairstyle that has been added has been very faithful to their entries, but suddenly with a more textured hair its merely "inspired by" because apparently they cant figure out how to model curls? please listen to feedback and consider revising the design, so many were excited at the idea of having more natural hairstyles

[Kharn]

Extending my voice in here for support. This contest entry was meant to diversify the hairstyles in the game away from the typical 'wavy' or 'straight' haired look. It's really a shame that they textured it in this way.

[childcage]

Had to +1 the thread to hope there's some change made here.

My first impression was that it looks awful. Oily/greasy. Flat as paper. I assumed maybe the screenshot was just bad. But...

Discovering it is not only bad, but an incredibly botched take on curly hair? Yikes.

[NonBinaryNyan]

I'm not sure if wet effects were left on for this preview or what, but I don't think that could account for all of this. PLEASE go back and do this hairstyle correctly. You selected a wonderful design for the contest that brings in personal representation that players (especially Black and other People of Color) have wanted for ages. Let players with textured hair see that in their WoL.

I understand that hair is one of the hardest things to render in 3-D animation, but please hear this with respect: if modeling this kind of textured curls is outside the skillset of your team, PLEASE contract an Artist of Color to do the work.

[alikeran]

Adding my support. I didn't even realize this was supposted to be "inspired by" that winning design from the contest until people started pointing it out. I hope it gets touched on after the feedback, judging by the pictures it really needs to be fixed. To respect the original artist's work, to give people more actually varied options and be more inclusive.

[lukacatte]

First time ever even making a forum account just to comment on this.

This hairstyle is the most disappointing thing I've seen in a long time from the FFXIV team. Not only does it not even resemble the winning contest entry, like it is meant to, but it doesn't even measure up to FFXIV's current graphics standards. Even if this hairstyle was not 'inspired by' a tight-curl hairstyle and was simply one they wanted to add into the game regardless, it looks like someone drew on the character models in MS Paint. This does not even measure up to the graphic quality BEFORE the graphics update.

Please, SE. Take another look at this and realize how bad this represents your big graphics update and reflects poorly on your inclusion of diverse hairstyles.

[MightyQuinn3000]

First time posting in the forums, and I'd have to agree with OP. It is tiring seeing a lack of natural hair styles for black characters. The game is well over 10+ years old at this point, so the fact this is still occurring after people have made it pretty clear they want more curled/textured hairstyles in game to better fit their characters/better represent themselves in game is appalling.

[starfarer]

Never used the forums before but thought it was the right time to do so. This hairstyle is frankly a disgrace to the original artwork, and to all the people who were excited to see themselves represented in-game at last.

We know this team can provide great work, and they have the funding to do so, given how popular the game is. Nonwhite players deserve better in particular, given the lack of actual curly hair in the game, and the fact that the only identifiably nonwhite hairstyles we have in the game are a stereotypical afro style from the last century and one set of "dreads" (I don't even want to call them that, they're VERY much not styled on an actual black person's hair).

There's a whole spectrum of unique hair from all around the world, for every hair texture in existence. I believe we owe it to our vast variety of players to actually put the work in to represent them. Not to mention, represent a dedicated player's artwork correctly - because this lack of care in translating the design is honestly concerning.

I hope they see this thread, I really do. They can do so much better.